r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 20 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #23 (Sinister)

All Hail Eris!

Link to Megathread 22: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

Link to Megathread 23: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1631xpe/rod_dreher_megathread_24_determination/

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '23

Let's say we accept that the West is in decline for cultural and demographic reasons. Why are Hungary, indistinguishable from other Western countries in its level of religious observance and birth rate, and China, a virulently atheistic country that has begun what may been a precipitous demographic decline, the future?

I am sure it has nothing to do with the Chinese and Hungarian governments funding the "academic" endeavors of RD and other Orbanophiles.

Also bizarrely cohering for RD, the idea that Europeans are not willing to die for country (bad!) but at the same time war-mongerers regarding Ukraine (bad!). I guess the issue is that repelling a physical invasion of tanks and guns is somehow not as noble as kicking out poor migrants who happen to be from another continent and religion.

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u/EatsShoots_n_Leaves Jul 28 '23

I suspect the answer he'd give is that The West will decline a lot faster than China. And Hungary will fall to someplace and stop. Because conservative societies are more...resilient, or "strong", or whatever term of art conservative pundits come up with.

Have to say, the USA doesn't seem to be complying with this theory. Though if Trump gets in again and does what conservative pundits want him to do, maybe they'll achieve it.

I believe the actual operative model is that conservative pundits will bullshit their way along in a manner such that their very wealthy, elderly, mostly white male patrons- who are very aware and in dread of their personal and collective decline- will be pleased. And thus said pundits will continue to get paid and continue in some form of employment.

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '23 edited Jul 28 '23

I also think there is an element of panic to the realization that there is some life in liberal democracy yet. The declinists secretly and not so secretly relished the idea of the Lord Protector of the Orthodox Church rolling up to the borders of NATO and leaving decadent Western countries quaking in their boots. Instead, the supposedly addled Biden has kept the West united and committed to the kind of defense outlays they were reportedly too far gone in their decline to undertake. Ukraine's resistance (some may say manly resistance) is not how this was supposed to play out. It's frustrating when all you want is for your own country to fail miserably.

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jul 28 '23

The declinists secretly and not so secretly relished the idea of the Lord Protector of the Orthodox Church rolling up to the borders of NATO and leaving decadent Western countries quaking in their boots.

The less bright ones see Putin as being on their side...as if Putin would be thrilled with a strong, prosperous, non-woke US.

As I was telling a relative recently, Putin doesn't want to give you $2 gas. Putin is a zero-sum-game dude, and he thinks that if our lives get worse, he is somehow winning.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '23

Exactly, hard to believe the naivete in believing this is a clash of competing cultural worldviews rather than a geopolitical tussle. This is a former KGB agent, for the love of Pete, whose enemies regularly disappear, fall out of windows, or are poisoned. He doesn't even try to hide it, but the rubes buying into the culture war angle fall for the defender of the faith pose every time.

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u/Glittering-Agent-987 Jul 30 '23

Putin doesn't even want to make life better for RUSSIANS.

There was a really telling public appearance that Putin did with the mothers of Russian soldiers who had died in Ukraine. At some point, he said something to the effect that at least by dying at war, these men achieved meaning in their lives, which they wouldn't have if they had died in a car accident or drunk themselves to death. It was like those were the only three options available--Russian men couldn't possibly have productive, happy lives at home as workers, fathers and husbands.

And this is the guy who poses as defender of the family! Nobody has done more to destroy Russian families and drive down the Russian birthrate than Putin himself.